'Dad' accused of Twin Towers fraud

By Susan SaulnyJuly 20 2003
The Sun-Herald

Jurors in the fraud trial of Cyril Kendall, 54, heard two different descriptions of him as his trial began in in Manhattan last week.

Of the 500 or so fraud cases connected to the September 11 terrorist attacks and handled by the Manhattan district attorney's office, Kendall's is one of the few to come to trial. In most cases, defendants accused of stealing money from charities decide to accept plea bargains, serve time and pay restitution.

But Kendall, who is charged with grand larceny, decided to fight the criminal justice system, said his lawyer, Dawn Florio, because he felt like a victim of a witch-hunt after losing his son in the attack.

Kendall, of the borough of Queens, contends that his son died while at a job interview in the north tower of the World Trade Centre. Prosecutors say he illegally obtained about $US160,000 ($247,000) in aid by creating a deceased son out of his imagination.

"Cyril Kendall has been charged with serious allegations that his son didn't die in the World Trade Centre," Mr Florio said before the trial began. "He did absolutely." ");document.write("

advertisement

");
}
}
// -->

Prosecutors portray Kendall as a practised liar who used the disaster to fatten his bank account at the expense of the American Red Cross and Safe Horizon, organisations he is accused of deceiving through interviews and phony documents.

Kendall claimed that his son who died, Wilfred, was his 13th child, born in Guyana 29 years ago. He produced a Guyanese birth certificate to relief workers, but prosecutors say it was a fake, along with other information that they say cannot be substantiated.

"Little did those organisations know that at a time most New Yorkers came forward to help each other, Cyril Kendall came forward to help himself," said Diana Florence, an assistant district attorney, during opening arguments.

One witness, a Red Cross official, testified about the aid Kendall received: funeral expenses and help with rent, credit card bills, living expenses and counselling.

Another witness, an officer with the US Embassy in Guyana, said that she could not find a birth record for a son of Kendall named Wilfred.

Kendall has a criminal record; he pleaded guilty in 1988 to statutory rape and served four months in jail.

But beyond that, prosecutors contended at a pretrial hearing, Kendall has a habit of filing frivolous lawsuits, including one against one of his sons.

Kendall claimed that he had slipped and fallen on that son's steps because the young man had recently painted them. The suit was dismissed in 2001 when it was learned that the son was in prison and could not possibly have painted the steps at his house.

Kendall also sued the Bank of America for $US8 million because he said it had bounced one of his cheques. That suit was dismissed in 1999. In another lawsuit, he accused a counselling service of wrongful termination. He lost that case in 1999 because he had falsely told the service he had a PhD, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney said.